Caenorhabditis elegans is a valued model organism that is easy to maintain in the lab. We obtained a mutant strain of C. elegans that exhibits constant involuntary muscle spasms, a phenotype that has not been described before in the literature (MCW230, curtesy of Dr Wang, BCM, Houston, TX). The 'trembler' mutant strain has a
nre-1(
hd20)
lin-15b(
hd126) genetic background. We use snip-SNP mapping to seek the causal mutant gene responsible for the trembling phenotype in the MCW230 strain. MCW230 worms were backcrossed with wild-type N2 worms to eliminate the double mutant background (
nre-1,
lin-15b). For snip-SNP gross mapping, we crossed our mutant with CB4856 worms. DNA was extracted from 43 F2 individuals resulting from the MCW230 x CB4856 cross. The F2 samples were studied to identify the presence of specific single nucleotide polymorphisms at 18 genomic locations (3 per chromosome) and assess how the alleles segregate relative to the trembler phenotype. We completed genotyping at all genomic locations and our data supports the idea that the trembler phenotype seems to be linked to one of the markers on chromosome III. Our work is an example of how research using C. elegans can be done in the undergraduate environment with basic laboratory equipment.